Key Officers

Chairman, Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA)

Mr. Antonio L. Co is a founding member and current chairman of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association after having been elected by the Board in September 2022.

Co’s expertise in the metal trade spans over 6 decades as he began his career in metal trading at the age of 14. Since then, he has ventured into metal manufacturing, starting his first steel manufacturing business, First Tandem Steel Corporation, in 1987.  

Co leads the Surigao del Sur based Carrascal Nickel Corporation (CNC) which he founded in 2007. CNC is primarily engaged exploration, mining, and exporting of laterite nickel ore.

His diverse business interests and investments extend beyond the steel and nickel mining industry, encompassing sectors such as general construction, shipping, hotel and resort.

He is currently the Chairman, CEO and President of various companies including Kafugan Mining, Inc., Sturdybuilt Construction and Development Corp., Landstar Earth Moving Corp., Grand Asia Metal Corp., Intermarine Lighterage and Shipping Corp., and Aqua Boracay Hotel and Resort Inc.

President, Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA)

Atty. Dante R. Bravo is among the founders of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) and has been serving as the president of the association since 2017.

He has over 25 years of senior leadership and professional management experience particularly in the areas of business strategy, legal strategy, finance and accounting, taxation, investor relations, and overall operations management.

He is the president of Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. (FNI), a publicly listed company in the Philippines engaged in mining and the second largest exporter of nickel ore in the Philippines. Concurrently, Atty. Bravo is also the president of wholly owned subsidiaries of FNI, which includes Platinum Group Metals Corp. (PGMC), Surigao Integrated Resources, Corp., and PGMC-CNEP Shipping Corporation, among others.

Atty. Bravo has been with the FNI group since February 2011. He started as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer before being appointed as President of FNI and its subsidiaries in August 2015.  Before joining FNI, he was a director in the Tax Division of SGV & Co., the largest auditing firm in the Philippines and a member-firm of Ernst & Young Global.

Since 2006, Atty. Bravo has been a professor of the San Beda College of Law. He is also a special lecturer in taxation to Philippine bar reviewees in San Beda, as well as a lecturer for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) program.

A lawyer and a certified public accountant, Atty. Bravo obtained his Bachelor of Laws at the San Beda College in 2001 where he was ranked 3^rd in the graduating class. In the same year, he took the Philippine Bar examinations and placed 10^th overall. Atty. Bravo obtained his Bachelor of Science in Accountancy at the University of Santo Tomas in 1996 and passed the CPA board licensure examination in the same year.

Executive Director, Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA)

Ms. Charmaine Olea-Capili is the executive director of the Philippine Nickel Industry Association (PNIA) since 2017.

Ms. Olea-Capili has more than 20 years of professional experience in public administration, policy, development, public affairs, stakeholder relations, and communications.

Before joining PNIA, Ms. Olea-Capili has worked for more than a decade in government service, which entails extensive policy advocacy, project management, public relations, and communications work for agencies and programs under the Office of the President of the Philippines (OP).

She also served as director for public affairs and government relations of Mindbench Philippines, a specialized consultancy firm that represents European companies in the defense, security and aerospace sector. She was also a senior public affairs officer of EON The Stakeholder Relations Group, which is the largest PR agency in the Philippines and the local affiliate of Edelman PR. In EON, she designed strategies and orchestrated campaigns for top multinational and local companies in highly regulated sectors such as mining, healthcare, public utility, consumer, manufacturing, and property development.

Ms. Olea-Capili earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, major in Marketing, from the Ateneo de Davao University in 1999. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Political Economy from the University of the Asia and the Pacific.